Why DnD Conditions Suck

Conditions are a great part of DnD, they make combat more engaging and give a nice element of variety.
However I think most conditions are done very poorly and end up not fun, so this video talks about how to improve these conditions to make combat more fun.
Also in this video are a few conditions that aren't in the rulebook (one from Balders Gate 3) for you to use in your games.
#5e #dungeonsanddragons #dnd

[@kaedenjohnson2591]

A few conditions Winded - One of my favorites, basically a character does something special that pushes their body to the limit, such as running a distance equal to 5 times their movement speed, cast a 1 minute spell in one action, attack twice as much for a turn, etc. It's creativity based. For the next two turns, their speed is halved, they have to choose between an action or bonus action, cannot take reactions, and gain no stat bonus to rolls. Basically do something huge, nerf yourself for two turns as you catch your breath. I felt like this was needed as exhaustion in 5e is too extreme. In fact, this could easily replace the exhaustion on the berserker barbarian subclass. This is a VERY rule of cool condition. If you don't play by this rule, its best to abandon/modify this. Nausea - Long lasting condition, prevents a creature from being to consume healing potions, food, and beverages outside of water. However it can be cured with relatively cheap medicine or an herbalism kit and a low dc medicine check. Great for survival games that put emphasis on hunger Pissed - A creature afflicted with this condition must spend there turn using basic attacks (no spells, no limited use or rechargeable attacks, etc.), they are less likely to hit (-3 to attack rolls), but are more likely to get get a critical hit (Crit on 19-20). The whole basic attacks thing is a vague term, meant more to be applied to monsters than players. This condition could be a saving grace for a party as a dragon's breath can turn a fight around in a single turn. As for the less likely to hit, more likely to crit, feel free to scale that based on how angry they are. Grossed Out - I'm still figuring out if this would be temporary or an instantaneous effect. An enemy does something gross and grossed out creatures re-roll initiative with disadvantage. No, this cannot be abused to have 2 turns in one round. If the game has fixed initiative, just say the one who is grossed out will go last. Kinda pointless unless the party really utilizes the turn order, in which case can create an interesting battle where the players can no longer resort to their bread and butter combos and have to improvise. Lionheart, spooked, off balance, etc. - Very minor conditions, basically they decrease/increase the chance of being afflicted with another condition. Maybe attach them as a benefit/detriment to a magic item or as a bonus effect of a basic attack

[@HangwitsArchive]

These are amazing, I love them. Winded is so cool because it's great for that last big push but it's so punishing which is fair because of how good the reward is. I also love that it's a choice so that the players can gamble to try and end a fight faster. I assuming this is a once per day effect? Nausea is great, it's such a small effect and I think DnD needs more of these minor conditions just to add a nice bit of variety. It's amazing to put on an orge due to their smell or something like that. Pissed is intresting because I want to know if this is a choice based effect or a forced condition like nausea. I also like that it can only be done on basic attacks. I think for this condition it should work like rage where if you don't attack it ends or that you must attack. Grossed out is weird but I like it, I think it should be a 1 round effect to mix things up, but from my video you can tell I like throwing strange obstacles in combat. lionheart should definitely be a magic item ability, it's really fun but if you use a lot of positive conditions it can be a really nice double edge sword. So basically I like your ideas they're cool and seem balanced

[@soundrogue4472]

The fun conditions you seem to be describing is what I call condition stages; where you are given stages or steps towards a certain threshold being met on a condition.

[@HangwitsArchive]

I've never heard of that term before but I really like it and something I'm definitely going to use in the future. Thank you

[@miguelangelnaranjoortiz304]

Or a Slippery condition, that grant advantage on escaping grapple checks, but might require you to do a Dex check if you move over half your speed or on a non straight path. How about a Pained condition that perhaps prevents you from Concentrating on spells. You can get give it to your players after a drunken night, or when they get kicked in certain body parts. Numbed, where they lose strength in a body part. I've always loved the Zombie status on Final Fantasy games, in which you get damage from healing spells. You could even make it so you gain health from necrotic damage, or provide some other benefit. You could create an "Echoed" condition, or something like this, in which the player leaves an afterimage on the square they begin their turn that last until the beginning of its next turn, and that can be targeted by attacks and spells. Or a condition were the effects of everything is delayed a turn, both attacks and healing. These would be really cool for the Chronomancer encounter you mentioned.

[@HangwitsArchive]

I really like this ideas, they are really cool. Personally I would slippery and echo as a spell or feat rather than a condition but I think they are awesome and something that should definitely be tried.

[@bigsmoke8816]

Its conditions like Paralyzed and Stunned that are the reason I always pick up dispel magic/counterspell and take Resilient Con/Wisdom as soon as I can lol. Main problem with these conditions I feel is how unforgiving they are to new players, like sure I wont really have a problem shrugging off a DC 16 stun effect with my 3 luck points and +6 con saves, but newer players who arent as proficient with the system get bodied by these sorts of effects. I once saw a first time player roll up to a session with his 11th level barbarian, only for the character to get hit by a Dominate Person spell and 8 consecutive cits before he even got a chance to activate his rage, all because the poor bastard had no idea how important Wisdom saves actually were and thus didnt invest in it. I honestly think a good way to balance all these conditions is to give all characters a bump to their unproficient saving throws equal to half their proficiency mod, so the new fighter player doesnt instantly get boddied by every single spell that requires a wisdom save.

[@HangwitsArchive]

I couldn't agree with you more, every character has a weakness which should be something that is fun and allows other players to shine. Also I'm surprised the DM didn't end the dominate person because after 4 rounds that's cruel, depending on how fast a table does combat 8 round could be 30 mins - 1 hour. I like the idea of giving better saving throws as characters get higher proficiency, it's fun and gives players a better chance at these conditions. I think if you want to run stunned, paralysed etc this is a really neat work around.

[@bigsmoke8816]

@@HangwitsArchive it was just 1 round actually. What happened was the Barbarian player decided to enter the next room all on his own and got jumped by 14 monsters. Was a common noob mistake but I still feed bad for him

[@HangwitsArchive]

Poor guy, that's brutal but it's something you must learn

[@user-fe2ne7qx9z]

I knows it's a bit of a faux pass to mention Pathfinder 2e in a video discussing 5e, but Pathfinder 2e has some pretty good conditions. I don't know how you'd be able to port them into 5e since a lot Pathfinder conditions give flat numerical bonuses or maluses, which 5e largely eschews for the Advantage/Disadvantage system, or hinges around manipulating the 3-Action Economy. To extrapolate on this, I've never felt like I've been put out of a fight because I got slowed 1 or whatever. It only ate up 1 of my 3 actions, which sucks, but certainly doesn't negate me from doing something impactful in a fight.

[@HangwitsArchive]

That's really cool, I'm going to look into this because I've never played pathfinder before but if there are some cool conditions to bring over ill see if I can convert them. That action system is really interesting, I do find DnD a bit hazy in terms of defining the differences between actions, bonus actions and free actions so it's cool that pathfinder has 3 actions in a turn (im assuming from your comment)

[@PaladinGear15]

Blargh, I once played with a DM who was obsessed with damage conditions. Literally every single enemy you fought would have some kind of condition causing ability for *every* attack. Plus they always lasted, you could never do more than one fight per day when playing with him, cause he'd homebrew conditions in that last the whole day or longer. There were ghosts that drained years from your lifespan, mummies that gave you mummyrot, wraiths that permanently drained levels, a giant swarm of maggot-like worms that infested you and gave you three levels of exhaustion until you got cured... What sucks most though is he loved conditions that made your character unable to do anything at all, stuff like stun, petrify, paralysis, I once played a session with him where I got 1 turn where I cast magic missile on a guy, then I just sat there doing nothing at all cause my character was stunned the whole time. He wondered why his players never stayed in his games, too... Longest a player stayed in his game was 3 sessions cause every combat was boring as hell for everyone. Conditions aren't so bad when it's a player using it on a DM's monsters cause the DM's got like 7 enemies to play as, when a player loses a turn their "gameplay" becomes "sit there and wait to roll a saving throw, maybe take some damage".

[@HangwitsArchive]

3 levels of exhaustion and permanent stat losses?! thats actually mental. Sound like he was an awful DM, surprised you stayed for 3 sessions. Also I agree that the stunned condition (and the other turn ending conditions) are fine for players, until boss combats where a stun can make the encounter too easy. So conditions are in kind of a strange spot for me in terms for players, I want them to feel strong but not strong enough to make combat a walk in the park. I haven't ever banned these conditions for players though, I just make sure I never use them for monsters.

[@teknogothyk]

Those aren't homebrew my dude. They're from earlier editions.

[@PaladinGear15]

@@teknogothyk No i know about level drain, rapid ageing and stuff being from earlier editions. The worm infestation causing exhaustion was homebrew, I shoulda written that better.